


The Moon, Number 18

by ughdotcom



Category: DanPlan, Danplan (Web Series)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Gen, Hosuh's really creepy in this y'all, Just some good ol fashion death and destruction, Kidnapping, Murder, Probably poorly written, Psychological Torture, Why are there no Danplan fics that are half-decent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-04-11
Packaged: 2019-11-13 17:50:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18036029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ughdotcom/pseuds/ughdotcom
Summary: “The Moon is a card of illusion and deception, and therefore often suggests a time when something is not as it appears to be.”In which a girl goes missing a few days after an odd-looking boy moves in to the quiet town of Riverside.





	1. The Moon

_ “T _ _ he Moon is a card of illusion and deception, and therefore often suggests a time when something is not as it appears to be.” _

 

The new boy liked making tiny little origami weapons — swords, spears, axes — and leaving them on his desk for the next class to find. Daniel’s friends thought he was strange, and perhaps he was. The new kid certainly looked alien, with his long, greyish hair(which was almost unheard of for a boy in Daniel’s town) and his skinny arms and wrists. Most young boys were skinny, but the new boy’s wrists looked like they belonged to a chicken. The boy looked as though someone tried to look like a human, but got the proportions wrong. His name was also odd. Daniel thought it was pronounced something like “Hosa”, but he couldn’t figure out how to spell it. But that wasn’t the weirdest thing about the sudden appearance of the new kid. It was already the third trimester, which was weird enough timing on its own, but a girl who had went to their school, had disappeared a few days after the kid moved into town.  

“He’s definitely an alien.” 

“He’s not an alien.” Stephen, Daniel’s friend argued. “How can you prove he’s an alien?” 

“How can you prove he’s  _ not  _ an alien?” Daniel shot back. 

PJ looked up from her phone and asked, “Who’s an alien?”

Daniel answered, “The new kid,” at the same time Stephen said, a little more forcefully, “No!”

“Oh, Hosuh? I talked to him a bit, he sits next to me in English. He’s nice enough, but a little quiet. He didn’t really act like an alien.”

This statement led Dan to think,  _ what does an alien even act like?  _

“Ok, maybe he’s not an alien.” Daniel paused, both in his walking and his talking. 

“What?” Stephen said, slowing down. 

“I’m just thinking. If he’s not an alien, what is he?”

“I don’t know, Dan, maybe he could be a  _ human _ ?” Stephen retorted. “You know, this is probably racist.”

“Your mom’s probably racist.” 

“How dare you insult my beautiful mother of such a crime!” Stephen cried, placing a hand over his heart in a dramatic fashion before bursting into high-pitched laughter. 

The group settled into silence for a bit after this, until PJ tripped over a rock and landed on her face. Subsequently, Stephen laughed at her.

“This is why the adults tell you to not walk while looking at your phone, PJ!” 

“We’re all going to die anyway,” said PJ, as she got up and dusted herself off.

“Ohoho! Edgy, are we?”

“Yes.”

….

“I can’t believe that your mom still makes you walk home.” Daniel said, out of breath. 

“It’s not my fault you're unfit.”

“It’s not my fault you live like, five miles away from school!”

“It’s actually only 2.3 miles.” Stephen responded, matter-of-factly. Daniel looked incredulously at Stephen and PJ. “This is more exercise than I’ve had in like, a year!”

“Then stop skipping PE.” 

Daniel grunted in response. 

Stephen’s house was kinda big. It wasn’t necessarily a mansion, but it was large and well-furnished. Stephen definitely had the most money out of all of Daniel’s friends(even though that wasn’t really saying much). Stephen, himself, was tall for his age, with large, thick glasses that covered up most of his face. He was quiet and nice when Dan first met him, but when they became friends and more comfortable with each other he started being louder and more chaotic. Stephen was the kind of kid who used to fry ants with magnifying glasses in the summer. 

PJ, on the other had, was also quiet, but in a different sense. Daniel thought she was always a bit broody, which was a good contrast to Dan’s enthusiasm and optimism. Dan didn’t actually know her that well at this point, but he thought she was good company. 

But Daniel thought they were all pretty normal kids. None of them seemed like the type to plan a murder or anything like that(even though Stephen did carry a switchblade against school rules). The new kid didn’t seem normal, but he certainly seemed interesting. 

Obviously, this means that Daniel needs to become friends with him. 

“Ok. Step one of operation become friends with Hosuh and figure out if he’s an alien is to go over to his house.”

“We can’t just go over to somebody’s house, Dan! That’s kinda creepy,” PJ responded. 

“Well, it’s not like we’re breaking and entering. Also, Stephen lives on the same block, so we can like…. Welcome him to the block or something! I mean, whenever a new family moves to my block, my mom makes brownies and sends me over there to say hello,” Daniel explained. “I don’t think that’s weird.”

“Well, I guess that works. But, Dan, why are you so hung up on talking to this kid? He doesn’t seem that weird to me.”

“It’s because Daniel has a crush on him,” Stephen said, completely deadpan from the other room. 

“No I don’t! And for the record, I’m not gay.” 

“Whatever you say, Daniel!” Stephen drawled, in a sing-song. “Also, I suppose this means you guys want to make brownies?” 

“Please?” I won’t make a mess.” 

“Ok, fine. Just don’t do anything that would make my mom yell at me.”

 

….

After two hours of spilt flour and two failed batches of brownies, they finally made an edible batch. 

“How can it be that hard to make brownies? They’re  _ brownies! _ ” PJ had cried, after getting flour spilt on her for the fifth time. 

“This is just further proof that Daniel is incompetent in every way.” Stephen said. 

Daniel scoffed. “I have better grades than you, you’re barely passing.”

“My superiority shines through in other ways.”

“Could you guys stop arguing about your male superiority? We should probably go over now, it’s going to get dark soon.”

Daniel checked the clock, which read  _ 6:23.  _ “Oh. Yeah.”

“Into the breach we go, I suppose! Let’s be off!” Stephen exclaimed, walking out of the kitchen. 

Stephen’s family lived on the north side of Riverside, unlike most of Daniel’s friends, who lived on the central south side. The north side was generally richer, despite being a very artful district. The roads were long and curvy, with low, warm streetlights that were aesthetically pleasing but didn’t really help your vision that much. There were abstract sculptures on many sides of the streets, which to the overactive imagination could look like monsters in the dark. Stephen often remarked that, “This would be a perfect set for a horror movie.” Perhaps it would be. It certainly was spooky enough after dark. 

The roads were long, and Hosuh’s house was further along the end of the block. Daniel was starting to think whether this was a good idea or not, but as they approached the house, he decided it was too late to turn back. 

The house in question was victorian-gothic, with dramatic arches and a long, winding staircase up to the door. It was almost vampiric, but last time Daniel checked, vampires weren't real(not that Daniel had anything to prove the non-existence of vampires, who was he to deny the validity of supernatural creatures) but it still made him and PJ both feel ill-at-ease. 

Stephen, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying both the spookiness of their surroundings and the discomfort of his companions. 

Stephen knocked on the door, rather loudly. After no response for about thirty seconds, he knocked again, harder. 

“Maybe nobody’s home?” whispered PJ, more of a question than a statement. PJ didn’t know why she felt the need to whisper, perhaps it was just the feel of their surroundings. As if called by some supernatural force, the door opened almost immediately after PJ commented. 

“Hello?” Hosuh asked. He was wearing pajama bottoms and some old band shirt, his hair was pulled up in a messy ponytail, and altogether he looked very, very tired. 

“Uh,” Daniel looked at Stephen expectantly. All of Dan’s natural charisma seemed to have gone out of the window. 

“What he means by ‘uh’, as he very eloquently said,” Stephen said, elbowing Dan, “Is that we want to welcome you and your family to the block.” 

“We have poorly-made brownies!” Pj offered. Hosuh blinked, confused, before saying, “Thank you. My parents aren’t home, though.” 

“Oh.” Daniel said. “At least that means that you don’t need to share the brownies.”

Hosuh smiled, “Yeah.”

After standing in silence for a few moments, Daniel said, “We should probably get going then,” at the same time Hosuh said, “You can come in if you want.”

“Really?” PJ asked. “Are you sure that would be fine with your parents?”

Hosuh nodded. “They work late, anyway. I doubt they would care. Just don’t like, jump me or anything, because I won’t be able to defend myself.” His lips turned up in a smile, like he was joking. 

“Oh shoot, you figured it out!” Stephen said, smiling. “The brownies are definitely poisoned.” 

“Maybe not on purpose though.” Daniel quipped, before the four of them burst into laughter. 

“Anyway, my name is Hosuh.” 

“We know,”said Stephen, flashing finger guns.

“I promise we’re not stalkers,” Dan paused, before  saying, “Well, Stephen here might be.”

“Shut up Daniel! You’re wrong!”

PJ and Hosuh looked at each other before starting their own, less chaotic conversation. 

“You’re PJ, right? Don’t you sit by me in English?” Hosuh asked.

“Yep, that’s me. And those two idiots are Daniel and Stephen.” 

The boy chuckled lightly at this. “Anyway, come in, I guess. I promise I don’t have any torture chambers I’m not telling you about.”

Daniel decided to go in. The kid seemed nice, if a bit morbid in his humour. Maybe Dan’s imagination was just overactive and had gone into full conspiracy theory mode. 

“Alright, sure.”


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daniel talks to Hosuh a bit more, and continues to speculate.

_The girl was hungry. Everything hurt. This morning, instead of a meal, bandages were slipped under the door by an invisible entity. A note in a flat, wide script was attached to it, reading, “you’ll bleed out if you don’t bandage up your arm.”_

_This made the girl wonder,_ why was she here? _She had seen the monsters already, they had already hurt her. But why didn’t they kill her already_ ? _And who was leaving her food and bandages?_

_The girl wished that she could die. If she died, she wouldn’t hurt anymore. Perhaps she wouldn’t wrap up her arm. Maybe the sweet release of death would finally take her._

 

…

They didn’t stay at Hosuh’s house for that long, but they did stay a bit longer than expected. Hosuh made them tea, which was very nice, even though Daniel wasn’t that much of a tea person.

“He was kind of awkward,” Commented Daniel, when they walked back to Stephen’s house.

“Well, that doesn’t mean he’s extraterrestrial, Daniel, social anxiety isn’t necessarily a sign of _impending doom._ ”

Daniel shrugged. “I just think it’s coincidental that Annabelle went missing a few days after he arrived.”

“I guess it is kind of weird. But honestly, if Hosuh has anything to do with her disappearance, it’s more likely that he’s just some weirdo than an alien,” PJ said, before saying, “Not that I’m accusing him of anything. He seems a lot more sane than the two of you.”

“Ouch,” said Daniel. “I suppose I do sound a bit delusional. I guess I’ve been reading too many conspiracy theories.”

“You’ve always been reading too many conspiracy theories.”

…

“What are you doing?” Daniel slid into the chair next to Hosuh, who looked up from his sketchbook.

“Drawing.” Hosuh stated the obvious.

“Wow. You’re really good. Can I see?”

Hosuh looked surprised, like people didn’t ask him this often. “If you want to, I guess.” He handed over the sketchbook, and Dan flipped through them.

“You’re really good,” Daniel said, for the second time.

“You told me that already,”Hosuh said, smiling. “But thanks again.”

Daniel suddenly stopped flipping through the sketchbook, and held up one sketch in particular. His blood turned cold. “Is this a drawing of Annabelle?”

Hosuh blushed. “Oh, yeah. Sometimes I like drawing people in my classes. I also drew Stephen. He has cool hair.”

Even though this was a perfectly normal thing for an artist, Daniel filed it away under the list of, _‘reasons why Hosuh is an alien/related to Annabelle’s disappearance.’_

“I didn’t know you had any classes with Annabelle.”

“Well, I do. I haven’t seen her around for the past few days. Is she sick?” Hosuh asked, genuine concern on his face. If the boy did have anything to do with her disappearance, he certainly was a good actor.

“She’s been missing for a few days,” Dan answered.

Hosuh’s eyes widened. “Oh God, that’s terrible! Did you know her well?”

“Not that well, but she was pretty nice. Of all the people here, I don’t think she deserved to be kidnapped.”

“You think she was kidnapped?” Hosuh asked, his voice small and shaky.

“I mean, I don’t think Annabelle was the type to just run away. She seemed pretty happy here.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Hosuh said, his voice trailing of. He let out a faint, tired bark of laughter. “Maybe I shouldn’t have moved here.”

Daniel didn’t say anything, just smiled awkwardly and walked away.

_Yeah, maybe._

…

“Daniel, I highly doubt that he kidnapped Annabelle. I know you want to be the new Nancy Drew, but…” PJ trailed off.

“Well, someone had to have done it!” Dan argued. “He kept on referring to Annabelle in the past tense! That’s kind of creepy! What if he, like, killed her?!”

Stephen sighed. “As much as I would love to have a good murder mystery on our hands, we can’t just accuse random people of crimes. There’s not any proof that Hosuh did anything, just a lot of circumstantial evidence. There’s not even any proof that she was kidnapped.”

PJ nodded. “You’re getting kind of obsessive about the whole thing. We should probably leave the investigating to the police.”

Daniel put his head in his hands. “Alright, I guess. I’m just worried.” He paused before saying, “but when have the police ever done anything right?” Daniel grumbled.

“That’s fair.” said PJ

“That’s not what you’re supposed to say! The FBI is watching, PJ! You better watch out! You're gonna get arrested!” Stephen joked,.

“Bold of you to assume I don’t _want_ to be arrested,” PJ shot back.

“Hopefully nobody’s going to be arrested.” Daniel said, picking his head up.

“Why, you planning on doing something illegal?” Stephen asked.

Daniel stayed silent.

“Jesus Christ, Dan, you can’t keep doing this!”

…

“Stupid Dan, stupid school, stupid everything,” Stephen grumbled. “Daniel, as I’ve said before, I don’t have problems with breaking the law, but I do have problems with waking up at _1 o’clock in the fucking morning.”_

 _“_ You have never said that before.”

“Whatever, shut up.”

They were at Stephen’s house, waiting for PJ and James to come along. James was a friend of Daniel’s, who was kinda interested in the whole ‘solving crimes’ thing.

“Do you think they’re coming?” Daniel asked, getting more unsure.

“I don’t know, man. Not everyone is cool with the whole ‘breaking and entering’ thing. You're lucky my morals were yeeted years ago by the gods.”

The doorbell rang.

“Wow, speak of the devil,” Stephen commented, opening the door. PJ walked through the door, frowning, and wearing a pair of large, fluffy mittens.

“Why are you wearing mittens?” Daniel asked, visibly confused. It wasn’t that cold outside.

“I don’t want to leave any fingerprints.”

“Yeah, but why _mittens?”_ Daniel asked.

“I didn’t have any gloves. ” Pj responded, which begged the question, _why the hell does she not have gloves?_

James turned up in a few minutes.

“It’s time to solve some crimes, y’all!”

 

...

 

“The more I think about this, the less I want to do it,” PJ said, fidgeting with her coat nervously. 

Daniel gulped. “Yeah.” 

“Don’t let your weird monkey anxiety brain take over, guys. We’ve already decided we’re doing this.” Stephen crossed his arms. “I mean, like, have a little fun.” 

“We’re not doing this for fun.” James stated, before turning to look at Daniel and asking, “Are we?” 

“No. We’re doing this to find out what happened to Annabelle.” Dan had never been that good at high pressure situations. He sighed. “I guess we’re actually doing this, then?” He looked around at his friends.

PJ looked down. “I guess. But this is the last time I’m doing something stupidly dangerous over one of your dumb conspiracy theories, okay?” 

“Okay.” 

Hosuh’s house was as creepy as ever. They stayed in silence in the dark for a few minutes, before Daniel asked, “Do any of you know how to pick a lock?” 

Stephen started laughing, hysterically, and the rest of them joined in after a few moments. 

“Why are we laughing?” PJ asked. 

“I’m just laughing because, we really, really didn’t prepare for this at all.” 

The four of them fell back into silence once again. 

“Uhh, we can look up how to pick a lock, right?” James suggested. 

So that’s what they did. 


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daniel and his companions do some really stupid stuff

In retrospect, this was a completely dumb idea, for a multitude of reasons. Dan was simultaneously thinking too much and not at all. Honestly, he wished he was more spontaneous than he was, because all of the different, negative outcomes of this Daniel was dreaming up. 

Well, at least maybe Dan would finally get some sleep after this. If they found nothing, maybe Dan would be able to actually rest. The past few days had been very deprived of sleep, part out of fear(of being kidnapped) and partly out of the ideas swimming around in his head. The one thing Daniel didn’t want was for this visit to bring up more questions. He already had enough. 

The night was silent, aside from the crickets and the breathing of Dan and his companions. The streetlight outside of Hosuh’s house was flickering, which certainly added to the tense atmosphere. Their were also gargoyles by the steps, which Dan hadn’t noticed the other day. They looked close enough to real for Dan too have jumped when he first saw them.  Stephen was cursing under his breath, as he failed to use a bobby pin(courtesy of PJ) to unlock the front door. 

“It never tells you how hard it is to pick a lock in movies,” Stephen grumbled. 

Daniel came to the sudden realization that they looked  _ very  _ suspicious. If anyone was awake, Dan didn’t know what they’d do. Run away? He was regretting this more and more by the second. 

The satisfying click of the lock sounded, along with Stephen whispering, “yes!” underneath his breath. 

“We can celebrate later, after we  _ don’t get arrested,”  _ PJ said, with a pointed glance at Dan towards the end of the sentence. 

“I’m not planning on getting us arrested,” Daniel whispered back. “Also, be quieter.” 

“I’m speaking in a perfectly fine volume right now, Daniel,” PJ retorted back, before James, interrupted them. 

“Are we going to go in?” He said, gesturing at the door. Even the doorknob was weird and fancy, shaped somewhat like a lion's head. Daniel sighed, rich people are always so extra. 

The door, surprisingly, opened with little resistance. It didn’t make any of the creepy creaking noises like it did in the movies, which Daniel was very grateful for. 

“We’re in,” said Stephen, like how they did in the spy movies. 

It was a very nice house, at the very least. The whole  _ extreme darkness  _ thing was a bit unnerving, but he doubted that Hosuh walked around in pure darkness at all times. 

“I can’t see shit,” complained James.

“Use your fucking flashlight then, dumbass,” replied Stephen, which James promptly did. 

The house also look nicer with some light source, as most houses do. The blinds on the windows were all shut, so none of the light from outdoors could get in. Dan supposed that this worked in their favor, considering that four figures stumbling around in a house that belonged to a family of three in the middle of the night was probably a  _ tiny  _ bit suspicious. James shined his flashlight up to the ceiling, pointing at the cut-glass chandelier in the center. 

“Fancy,” he said, in a stupid voice. 

Daniel agreed. It was fancy. 

“Okay y’all. I know you guys are taking a moment to realize the whole, ‘oh shit we broke the law’ thing, but we should probably make a plan.” Stephen deadpanned. 

“We should split up,” Dan suggested. “We could cover more quicker, and it’s a pretty big house. 

“Have you ever seen a horror movie, Dan? Whenever someone splits up, they immediately die!” 

“I agree with Stephen,” PJ interjected. “I mean, not saying we’re going to die, but the dead deer head over there is definitely giving me spooky vibes.” 

Daniel looked over to where she was pointing. The deer head  _ was  _ spooky. 

“James?” Daniel asked, who had been uncharacteristically silent. 

“I don't know man. I don’t think we should split up. If you wanna go fast then just, fuckin’ power walk or something.” 

“Also, Daniel, what do you expect to find? You think there’s just gonna be some piece of paper on it that says, ‘I am an alien’ on it?” PJ questioned. 

Daniel shrugged. “Just something incriminating. I don’t really know what counts as incriminating, at this point.” 

“Alright, but if I see a dead body, I’m leaving. I don’t want to be the second victim of a budding serial killer.” 

….

The first floor was relatively uneventful for most of the time. Aside from being unnecessarily elaborate, everything seemed to be pretty normal. They found Hosuh’s birth certificate in a locked drawer. The key was inside the lock, so they didn’t really have to do much sleuthing. 

“I guess that proves that Hosuh’s not an alien,” gloated Stephen.

“Yeah, I guess,” Daniel responded. “But people can make fake birth certificates.” 

“Who the fuck makes a fake birth certificate?” 

“I don't know, Stephen, maybe an alien?” 

Dan and Stephen’s argument was interrupted by a strangled-ish screaming sound. After a few seconds of confusion the two of them realized that the scream came from PJ, who was in the kitchen. 

“Okay, guys, I know I shouldn’t have screamed, but this is  _ really fucking creepy _ .” 

“What is it?” said Daniel, obviously concerned. PJ didn’t respond. James was already there, looking a bit pale in the face. 

“Seriously, what’s wron-” Stephen asked, before looking into the fridge. 

“Jesus fucking christ.” 

Dan's heart was pounding.

His hands were shaking involuntarily. 

The silence was so tense, someone could cut through it with a knife. Dan’s breath was coming out in quick, shaky breaths as he tried to come up with a logical explanation for this.

There were animal remains in the fridge, stacked on top of each other in little plastic containers. At least, Daniel hoped they were animal remains. For all Dan knew, they could’ve been human remains. 

“I mean, maybe his parents could be… scientists, or something?” said Daniel. It was more of a question than a statement, and his voice was shaky. 

“Yeah, probably.” Stephen drawled, obviously recovered from the shock. “I mean, the heart looks too small to be a human’s, anyway.” 

PJ closed the refrigerator and took a deep breath. 

“Yeah. We should probably move on.” She said.

And so, the group turned around, heading for the stairs, before hearing heavy footsteps going down the stairs. 

“Shit.” Dan said, and turned off his flashlight. 

A figure came down the stairs. Dan couldn’t make out who it was. 

“Hello? Who’s there?” 

 


	4. Hiatus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, I'm deciding to go on hiatus for a few different reasons. I'm really busy throughout spring, and I'm also not really feeling this story anymore. I don't know how long this will be on hiatus, but you can contact me if you want to continue the story.

Hi guys, I'm deciding to go on hiatus for a few different reasons. I'm really busy throughout spring, and I'm also not really feeling this story anymore. I don't know how long this will be on hiatus, but you can contact me if you want to continue the story.


End file.
